How do they get baseball field grass to be striped like that? Is it the way they cut it, or the way it’s fertilised, or both? Is there any way I could get my grass to have that pattern? Or would that just look stupid?
Cecil knows! And now, so do the rest of us. Pp 272/273 of ‘Triumph of the Straight Dope’.
I’m trying to get a book sale here. That’s why there is no link to ‘checkerboard pattern in baseball outfield’.
Well, the master’s response is here. However, after reading it , I don’t think he has the whole story. Look for my new thread in “Comments on Cecil’s Columns”
I guess I’ll just post it here. Nowadays, you can just use a roller to get the blades of grass to lay in a certain direction, and create as many patterns as you want.
When the new Comerica Park opened in Detroit, the outfield grass was cut into a bullseye pattern. It was very hard to look at it (as were the Tigers early in the year). It has since been changed to a checkerboard pattern I believe and the Tigers are playing better.
When I was a kid, I realized that if I mowed the family in two directions, I could get a fair approximation of the checkerboard pattern.
However, I was too lazy to do that more than once.
Bob, Nice typo. I hope it wasn’t Freudian.
Bob, you really shouldn’t mow the family!
I see Lawnboy (or one of the major brands) has an ad campaign featuring a riding lawn mower with rollers for home use so everyone can make their lawn look like that.
I guess I really hated doing yard work more than I thought.